Team

The agency is a collaboration between Mike Allen, the original founder, and long-time colleagues Stephen Yolland, Erin Lightfoot and Pat Langton

Metricon - Look Of Love

BriefTraditionally Metricon’s biggest single promotion of the year in Victoria, taking advantage of the fine Summer weather for visiting displays, when with 18 of their leading suppliers they offer huge luxury bonuses to their customers.

IdeaEvery year this campaign showcases everything good about Metricon, each year with a great soundtrack providing an emotive overlay to the lifestyle footage of people enjoying their new Metricon home. This year the famous Burt Bacharach and Hal David song “Look of Love” was chosen and re-recorded with a modern feel.

ResultsThe new campaign has again seen immediate acceptance with the public, with strong enquiry everywhere.

Cox Plate 2018

The Cox Plate Carnival at The Valley is very different from the other Spring Racing headline events - the Cox Plate itself is widely believed to be the best WFA race in the world, and it holds a unique position in the Australian racing calendar.

And in recent years, of course, it has been a huge news item through the efforts of the remarkable Winx, who has now won the race a record-setting three times, and this year is returning to try and secure an historic and unprecedented fourth W.S. Cox Plate win.

Again leading with their well-established campaign line - ‘Legendary’ - the new ad campaign truly sums up what this Carnival is all about. The Carnival is actually two amazing race days back-to-back - which is also unique - kicking off with the marquee Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes on the Friday night under lights, and then culminating on Saturday with the race where legends are made - the Ladbrokes Cox Plate.

Metricon - Your Local Builder

BriefMetricon’ prides itself on being a bid builder that “thinks local” in Regional Victoria, employing local people in sales, administration, client liaison and building homes. This commitment to the communities in which they do business is captured in this campaign, currently in its third successful year.

IdeaShow local people in a variety of roles from each of the regions of Victoria who have built a successful career with Metricon, and show who love how their company helps local people in the regions to truly love where they live.

ResultsResearch shows that the campaign has played a pivotal role in consolidating Metricon’s position as the leading supplier of new homes in Regional Victoria.

Budget Trucks Radio

Budget Trucks Radio - Pommy Git

BriefTo revive the hugely well-known and well-liked “Pommy Git”/"Mr Budget" radio commercials for truck rentals last heard ten years ago with current offers.

SolutionUsing the previous long-running campaign as a guide, the new scripts simply bring the characters and the deals bang up to date. The essential charm and comedy of the performances has been retained.

ResultsImmediate recognition and response in both Brisbane and Melbourne markets. Strong enquiry.

Night Racing 2018/19

THE CHALLENGENight Racing at The Valley competes with every other form of entertainment going, including just staying home and watching Netflix. So we created a spot to absolutely seize the attention of young male and female sports fans and motivate them to choose to go to the racing over visiting a pub or other sporting events, or just doing nothing.

IDEAWe created an integrated campaign that included a heavy radio presence, online, social and outdoor. We aired the radio from Wednesday to Friday when patrons might start planning the weekend.

RESULTSRecord crowds throughout the racing season.

Mandalay Living

Melbourne's new resort-style living in the North. Magnum Opus created a multi-layered advertising campaign to move premium home and land packages in this superb development.

Activity included strategy consultancy and revising the website and the area's core positioning, new photography, TV advertising, radio advertising, re-vamp of the onsite sales centre, location signage, outdoor billboards, and more.

Avalon Centre

In conjunction with Homelessness Prevention Week, we teamed up with local charity Avalon Centre to help their Homes For The Homeless initiative.

Thanks to all parties that made this film possible; Patrick Harvey for lending his voice, Paul McCosh for sound design and of course the wonderful actor Meg Langton.

Victorian Government - Weapons

An important campaign which we were awarded in a competitive pitch because Magnum Opus is on the Victorian Government advertising agency panel.

Carefully targeted against the core problem market - young men - the campaign immediately makes a strong and emotive argument against the carrying of weapons, which are often employed spontaneously where the consequences for both perpetrator and victim are not clearly foreseen in advance. Agency prepared poster advertising, radio advertising, and online ads.

HomeSolution

THE CHALLENGE

To get the attention of first home buyers by presenting the HomeSolution by Metricon offer of ‘double the grant’ in an eye-catching manner. The deal means Metricon match the $10k First Home Owner grant from the Government giving people a head start of twenty grand towards their new home. ($30k in regional areas.)

IDEA

Create “AB Tested” Instagram stories with deliberately quirky headlines relating to the target audience. Interested to create leads, but also to positively affect the brand image to make it more “friendly” and appealing to the age group most represented in first home purchases.

RESULTS

The results were great, generating a small but steady flow of leads per week for a very low cost. In such a high-value segment it certainly was very effective! ROI very significant. Campaign continues.

Samsung

Samsung Electronics Australia hosted an exclusive educational event at Parliament House in Canberra on 5G technology and the transformative impact it will have on the Australian economy.

5G will revolutionise the way the world does business. It will inspire new ways of working that will achieve an estimated $73 billion in Australian 5G enabled sales across all industries by 2035. This new network, capable of delivering speeds up to 100 times faster than current 4G, will touch all areas of our economy and society. It will enable driverless cars and facilitate virtual and augmented reality in classrooms and hospitals. In our homes, 5G will unlock the seamless connectivity required for the Internet of Things.

Strategy

More than ever, clients are looking for smart, measured and strategic ways to manage, grow and market their businesses.

Spirit Re-brand

BRIEFTell Australia just how fast their internet actually is - and what that means to everyone.

INSIGHTWith an offering that literally blows their competition away, this launch TVC spot for Spirit (supported by eye catching posters) clearly tells the core message in a simple uncluttered way. So if you think ‘the big boys’ are the ones to deliver you the best internet, ‘Think Again’.The use of bright primary colours “literally” exploding with excitement was (and is) emblematic of the Spirit offering. Click on the cinema spot and be ‘blown away”.

RESULTSThe carefully-targeted cinema and outdoor ads provoked a jump in awareness and very strong enquiry. The graphic design of the work played a major role in the success of the campaign.

PhoneNames

BRIEFRe-launch Phone Names in Australia.

INSIGHTTelstra Phone Words - the market leader in this space - is well known, so the purpose of making words into phone numbers is well understood by the market. That meant we didn’t need to explain what the business does, just “get it on the radar” with its bigger competitor. We decided to use humour to stand out. In a clever twist, when calling the numbers on the outdoor ads, callers would actually be put through to the Phone Names business.

RESULTSIncongruous and funny talent contrasted with his activity was very eye-catching. The ads were deliberately kept very simple. Awareness of the Phone Names offering was substantially increased in a “short, sharp” low-cost campaign.

Metricon Regional Branding

Victoria is much bigger than just Melbourne, and Metricon's business is much bigger than just Melbourne, too. As the number 1 builder in Australia and a leading player in Regional Victoria specifically, with sales offices and displays dotted all over the State, Metricon wanted a new brand spot that talked about their unique relationship with local communities. Also projected in radio and print, and at POS.

Winslow Big Blue

Leading civil construction company Winslow Constructors are taking a bold step to raise awareness of mental health conditions within the construction industry by painting a huge Hitachi ZX360 excavator blue to support mental health organisation beyondblue.

This new initiative raises awareness about the tragic reality that Australian construction workers are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than workers in other industries.

Posters, social and wallet cards were applied across the Winslow work place to raise awareness of mental health conditions within the construction industry.

Water Safety Campaign

A critically significant and highly-praised high impact campaign which we were awarded in a competitive pitch because Magnum Opus is on the Victorian Government advertising agency panel.

By making the amount of time it takes a small child to drown in a pool, a river, or even a bath the core component of the advertising, which spanned TV, radio and posters, the agency communicated a vital piece of public safety information in an easily understood and simple to remember manner.

Available Position

Akambo Brand

BRIEFA re-brand for successful financial services and advice group Akambo.

INSIGHTThis marketplace is all about having confidence in the advice you are receiving. So using strong colours with a bold new corporate identity allowed Akambo to stand out over their competitors in the market, as well as communicate authority.

RESULTSA brand story that everyone can all buy into - advisors, staff, customers and influencers. A new logo, website, business cards and corporate brochure showcase the new look and feel, and gives the business the flexibility to promote different divisions with one consistent feel.

Breast West - Fashion For Care

Every year Western Health holds a BreastWest Fashion Gala to raise funds to care for women dealing with breast cancer. How do we get people to donate more money to women with breast cancer?

IDEA

Create a unique piece of jewellery worth wearing. There are a lot of wearables out in the market but we created a fashion accessory that not only looked good but was made from quality sterling silver. We called it ‘Fashion For Care’.

EXECUTION

We created a film and posters to advertise on the night of the Gala and then set up a website so the general public could then purchase the bracelet.

Get the love

Summer excitement again as MOP help Metricon Homes and their partners to launch a major summer promotion for the third year running - the new “Get the Love” promotion launches with new TV commercials in Melbourne Metro and Regional Victoria, plus posters, brochures, online, radio and more.

World Teacher Month

THE CHALLENGEThere’s a lot of “world days” and ‘months” throughout the year but what better day to celebrate the unique work that Teachers do? The goal was to raise awareness of Kilvington Grammar by association with this well-known international event.

IDEAA social film was produced using an ear-and-eye-catching ‘spoken word slam’ format, showcasing teachers and students from the school. Posters were also placed across the school and social.

RESULTSThe feedback and results were amazing for a relatively small school, with over 90,000 views and counting on Facebook since 11 October 2017. The campaign also picked up lots of press from national and international publications.

Residential Developments

Over the years MOP has developed creative strategies for major residential developments for some of Australia's largest developers. Clients include Metricon, Australand (Frasers Property) and The Becton Group.

Red Rock Australia

Red Rock operates some of Australia’s most recognised hospitality and tourism businesses. Among these are Eureka Skydeck – Australia’s tallest Observation Deck, great bars such as P.J.O’Brien’s on the east coast, the iconic Pier Bar in Cairns, and top restaurants such as Frasers in Kings Park Perth, and Melbourne’s famous travelling Tramcar Restaurants.

Red Rock also operates many bars & cafes in Melbourne and Perth’s Domestic & International Airports with venues including Macchinetta Café and Two Johns Taphouse.

Contact

49 Cubitt Street, Creamorne Melbourne Victoria

The Mens Collective

THE CHALLENGEConvince young men to shake off the stereotype of “Aussie blokes” not being able to talk about what’s going on in their lives - and the fact that their lives don’t conform to some simplistic macho stereotype, and that’s OK.

IDEACreate copy and a “look” with a social film and clever headline-based posters that tackle the concept of what it means to be a man. Unusual media choices like street posters got the debate going where it needed to be - on the streets.

RESULTSThe results were fantastic, with all sessions booked out and very effectively raising the profile of the newstart company.

Moonee Valley Racing Club

One of Australia's leading sporting clubs, Magnum Opus has guided the fortunes of Moonee Valley Racing Club - now known colloquially as "The Valley" - for many years. We are responsible for a vast array of collateral material, year-round advertising, including the shift to night racing, and also the iconic Cox Plate carnival.

AFL

Magnum Opus pro-actively approached the AFL with an idea to boost respect and affection for the umpires who keep the game on track, week in, week out.

The result was a TV campaign that was widely applauded not just at elite level but down throughout the competition as an important contribution to the broader AFL "respect" push.

Cox Plate

THE CHALLENGEMost racing clubs throughout the Spring Carnival solely on the fashion and entertainment side of the racing - essentially inviting people to join a great big party. All well and good, but just “doing the same” means the market gets very cluttered and it’s very hard to stand out from the crowd. Not what the Valley needed.

INSIGHTFor The Valley, specifically, focus solely on what the Spring Carnival should really be about - racing! The Cox Plate Carnival at The Valley is different - it is known as one of the best WFA races in the world, with the best horses competing. So we put all our money on Winx with our campaign ‘Legendary’, celebrating past and present horses that have made history. And we combined that with stunning graphics and design.

RESULTSCox Plate Day sold out the week before the big day, with record attendance. The Manikato Stakes the night before also achieved a record crowd. 44,422 patrons walked through the turnstiles. A big part of this was the creative design of the campaign - bold, unmissable, and celebrating Winx’s remarkable achievements.

Metricon Brand Campaign

BRIEFCommunicate that Metricon Homes is the number one builder in Australia and show what that means to their customers.

INSIGHTA house is not a home. What people do in that house is what makes it a home - the joy people have from family time spent in such beautiful residences. So we continued Metricon’s well-known ‘Love where you live’ campaign but with a refreshed message about Metricon having become the number one builder in Australia. Critically, the messages were kept simple and emotional and were customer-focused, not “chest beating”.

RESULTSMetricon continues to be Australia’s number one builder - still growing year on year. More people than ever now love where they live. A huge part of this success has been design that shows people enjoying their homes, not just focusing on the homes themselves - beautiful as they are - but focusing on what they help people to enjoy - an unmatched lifestyle.

Problem Gambling

An socially-sensitive and significant campaign which we were awarded in a competitive pitch because Magnum Opus is on the Victorian Government advertising agency panel.

Working around the core idea of "Think about what you're really gambling with", materials had to balance the need to convey harm minimisation messages without appearing to be "finger wagging" and producing a resentful response from the core target. It also played an important role in broadening community understanding of problem gaming generally.

Services

An overview of the different services offered by Magnum Opus Partners. More than just an advertising agency a creative house

Eureka Skydeck

Soaring high above Melbourne is one of its newest and most iconic buildings, which doubles as an important tourism destination, as popular with the local community looking for an eagle-eye view of their City as it is with interstate and international visitors.

Magnum Opus has brought a series of high-impact campaigns to TV to market this amazing facility.

Merry Christmas 2018

Ho, ho, ho! Did you know the image of Santa we know in Australia today was crafted by ad agencies - especially Coca Cola’s team of creative thinkers?

He’s not even the same the world over - the traditional British Santa wears green and has a wreath of holly on his head, and in Russia Santa is a demon accompanied by a snow maiden! In Sweden Santa is a dwarf, in Iceland he’s thirteen naughty elves, and in Holland Sinterklass is a saintly character wearing a bishop’s hat.

In Germany, Austria, and the Czech and Solvakian regions, Santa Claus isn’t even male - children are visited by a female “Christ Child”, who is a benevolent gift-bringer with long curly blonde hair! In Spain and other Hispanic countries, kids welcome Three Wise Men bearing gifts. And it doesn’t even happen on Christmas Day, but on January 6th, the day the Three Wise Men supposedly arrived at the stable.

So what would Santa look like if his legend was being created by some groovy lunch of creatives today? No great big rotund guy with a white beard, that’s for sure!

HomeSolution by Metricon

What do you do when thousands of people who could afford to be in their own brand new dream home don't even find out how because they believe they are locked into renting forever?

Magnum Opus created a new brand for Metricon Homes as well as cut through advertising that made it abundantly clear that even with a low deposit, you can get into a new home. TV advertising, radio advertising, all print collateral, brand development, online presence, online ads - the works.

MOP

A blatant piece of subliminal advertising on our website to remind you of what we are all about. Enough.

EA Games - Need For Speed

Part of a series of three humorous TV spots to announce the arrival of EA Games' new Need for Speed game. The 3 spots garnered a cult following and the launch sales exceeded expectations.

Autism Awareness

World Environment Day

We approached Wildlife Victoria to do a social video for World Environment Day, showing their Facebook audience the impact humans have had on the environment and the effect it has on our animals around the world.

Cars Cars Cars

Magnum Opus are "car people". Through and through. Cut us and we bleed steel, leather and car style.

Over the years we have been the brand custodians for Nissan, Saab (both in Australia, and internationally), Iveco, Holden Special Vehicles, For Performance Vehicles, and others. Not to mention various layers of the automotive distribution chain, like dealer groups.

We "get" car buyers. Really get them. What's in our heads could be worth millions to you. Just ask.

Metricon Brand Outdoor

It's not enough to have a slogan and stick it under your logo and forget about it - even when it's a really good one, developed by Magnum Opus over 15 years ago.

You need to periodically "make that slogan make sense" to a new public. These simple new large-format billboards in Sydney, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Adelaide do just that, with great impact, and very cost effectively to a mass audience.

Parks Victoria

Another significant campaign which we were awarded to boost tourism activity following widespread bushfires in Victoria.

The goal was to encourage both Victorians and interstate visitors to make more and better use of the huge range of leisure opportunities presented by Parks Victoria, including a website, and special interactive site for children, development of the "Ranger Roo" character soft toy for children, posters, TV advertising, and more.

Cyber Bullying

Bully Zero Australia is a charity that combats bullying in all forms. In this case we partnered with them to create a TV commercial that ran across all major networks.

Kryal Castle

One of Victoria's most successful and popular tourism destinations, Magnum Opus is responsible for strategic advice, TV advertising, radio advertising, posters, online ads, and more, sometimes working in conjunction with other Ballarat area tourism outlets such as Sovereign Hill.

A land of medieval adventure, right here in Victoria!

St Kilda Tourism

How do you project one of the most eclectic, interesting, and exciting locales in any city to the widest possible audience, both in Melbourne, regionally, and interstate?

You don't try and cram it into a neat box. The very diversity of St Kilda provides its unique charm. So it needs to be celebrated.

Over a number of years Magnum Opus have created a vast raft of collateral material, advertising and event promotion around the core theme of VIST PLAY STAY.

FireReady

"Are you FireReady?" Another landmark campaign where the agency was invited into a competitive pitch because Magnum Opus is on the Victorian Government advertising agency panel.

The campaign is now considered one of the most important stages in ramping up fire awareness in the Victorian community, and was activated statewide. Using the core proposition created by Magnum Opus, it effectively communicated the need for a formal fire plan, a matter which is now considered the most basic component of being ready to combat or escape a bush fire, but when then was a novel idea. Mediums included television advertising, outdoor billboards, online and print.

Victoria Police

How do you get 100,000 applications from a population of four million to ask to take on one of the most challenging jobs in town? Answer: employ Magnum Opus to develop one of the most unusual TV ad campaigns ever seen in Australia, with two-minute commercials with no voiceover, marrying "real life" images of police at work, in training, and at leisure, to a standout popular music track.

It remains one of the most successful advertising campaigns in modern Australian history, providing Victoria Police with a huge bank of potential candidates to choose from - and especially women - and also very positively affecting the general public's view of their new, diverse, modern police force.

Victoria's Nurses

Who knows what a nurse's life is really like? Answer: nurses. So if you want to recruit more nurses to a public health system seeking to recover from years of decline, why not let nurses tell their story for themselves?

That's what Magnum Opus did, giving video cameras to nurses to film their own activities and comment on their life. Then we created a standout two-minute TV commercial with an incredibly emotive opera track as the background - in Italian - to capture the emotion of their lives, and their single-minded dedication, interspersed with nurses talking "on the job". It remains the only recruitment campaign for public nursing in Australia's history that ever achieved its target.

SchoolMate

THE CHALLENGELaunch the new government initiative to help parents enjoy a better understanding of what their child is learning at school and to encourage them to interact more often, and more directly, with schools.

IDEAUsing series of posters and CPM banners putting the parent in the class room accompanying their child with a simple one-word headline - ‘Questions’.

RESULTSWith thousands of downloads of the app, it has made a genuine difference to families of all kinds throughout the community, and also elicited great feedback from parents across Victoria.

Kilvington Grammar

Working with the core idea of "The Pursuit of Character" as what sets this fine school apart from institutions that focus merely on cramming students with facts, Kilvington is presented to parents as a school that develops the whole student, not just their learning, whilst still ensuring academic excellence. Mediums used include newspapers and online.

Publishing

Part of our work for The Valley involves creating a regular magazine packed with comments, articles and practical information, to be distributed far and wide to their members and to racing fans.

We have delivered magazine, brochure and flyers for a number of different categories. Whether it’s high end or a weekly promotion, if needs a design, we’ll deliver.

Australian Sustainable Hardwoods

The way to sell more wood is not to show lumps of wood. It's to show how exquisitely that wood enhances architecture, both internal and external, not only in trade advertising but also via a premium quality book distributed to key influencers like architects, designs, and builders. Sometimes the best ad we can write isn't an ad.

Manchester. United.

A short message to express our support for all affected by the #manchesterbombings.

MOP Christmas

A fun spot to say Merry Christmas to all our clients. The spot was picked up and was featured on American publication AdWeek.

MOP logo

Throughout the year we redesign our logo to fit with causes that we believe in. Whether it’s International Women’s Day or simply the the World Cup, if it inspires us to be creative we change it.

We hope you enjoy the designs as much as we enjoyed creating them.

Night Racing Radio

CHALLENGENight Racing at The Valley competes with every other form of entertainment going, including just staying home and watching Netflix. So we created a spot to absolutely seize the attention of young male and female sports fans and motivate them to choose to go to the racing over visiting a pub or other sporting events, or just doing nothing.

SOLUTIONWe created an original mix of horse racing and music developed by a DJ, sound engineer and vocalist. First we set out the type of music the younger generation would be relate to. We start off with the sound of horses hooves that slowly turn into a drum beat and then a flow blow house track. Radio was the best medium and airing from Wednesday to Friday when patrons might start planning the weekend. We also played an extended version on race nights.